Customer Reviews

A Concise History of Iran

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The author of this book openly avows that he isn't a historian, but something tells me I would have known even if he hadn't. This book is dotted with many examples of practices that would make anyone even vaguely interested in accurate history cringe. For example, Shirazi describes the Scythians/Sakas as being "pagans who held their women in common and devoured their aged relatives" on page 85. However, he neglects to note that because the Scythians had no writing of their own, the only accounts of them we have were written by the Greeks and the Persians - i.e. their bitter enemies who probably weren't particularly interested in scholarly objectivity. He also tends to make rather large omissions, one example being the complete lack of reference to Shah Ismail's brutal campaign of forcing the public to convert from Sunnism to Shi'ism in the chapter on the Safavid Empire.

Last but not least, he has an irritating tendency to make embarrassing factual errors, a few of which I'll list:

- Page 64: Referring to Cyrus the Great as Cyrus III when he was actually Cyrus II
- Page 88: Reference to the assassination of Julius Caesar at the hands of Octavius and Cassius rather than Brutus and Cassius
- Page 203: Calling Ahmad Pasha "the Turk Emperor," despite that he was only a military officer and later a governor and despite that the very title pasha indicates that he was a government functionary, not a sultan
- Page 216: Reference to how "Thomas Jefferson along with other scholars drew up the [U.S.] Constitution" despite Jefferson's being in France at the time and thus obviously not well placed to attend a constitutional convention in Philadelphia

There are other claims that seem questionable, such as the assertion on page 188 that the Ottoman sultan Selim I massacred 40,000 Shi'ites for which I have yet to find any corroborating sources. However, those I listed above were enough to make me suspect every fact this book offered.

I suppose one can argue that this proves the superior instructive ability of the book (the process of running to the internet every five minutes to crosscheck a claim did ensure the subject matter was drilled into my memory), but this is hardly what constitutes an undisputed authority on the subject. Of course, the book does have one undisputable edge over other histories of Iran: it's in English (albeit rather bad English). However, if the reader wants a history that doesn't require constantly being on the alert for inaccuracies, this is not the place to look.

I had this book on my Wish List, then found it through my library. I'm very glad I did not pay for it. I am not Iranian, nor is my family. I was interested in learning more about Iran's history and culture as background to some current news headlines. This book is FULL of information to be sure. But much of the "history" is simply chronology strung together, with no academic interpretation. Granted, Persia's history is extremely long and complicated, maybe the author was trying to streamline into one manageable volume. But what made the book unreadable towards the end was the grammatical and typographical errors in the text. Very simple things that for the most part do not obscure the meaning, but make the reading itself halting and mentally exhausting. How hard is it to have a native English speaker proof-read your work?

One can argue that Mr. Shiriazi's book is not written in perfect English. One can argue that the book has made a few errors on names (e.g. Cyrys II instead of Cyrus III). One can even argue that Mr. Shirazi is not a historian by profession and hence why bother writing the book. One can always argue over so many things. But one thing is for certain, If you are an Iranian - and I mean a genuine Iranian - you will come to truly enjoy reading this book for the purity of Mr. Shirazi's Good Thoughts, Good Words and his intended Good Deeds for authoring this book.

Having been away from Iran since the national suicide of 1979, I had forgotten how it feels anymore to have the blood of Persia running inside of me. Mr. Shirazi through this book has reminded me of the pride that is within me and that I should always remember of it. This is the book that I strongly recommend for all Iranians (and especially those born after the national suicide of 1979) to read. I wished I knew how to genuinely express my gratitude to Mr. Shirazi for writing this book. I do strongly recommend for all Persians, all those who still consider themselves as having had the pride of Persia inside them whether now or at some point in the past to read this book.

It was about time to become up-to-date with the history of this part of the world. A thumps up!

This is a history book that I enjoyed reading. I really recommend it to our Iranian readers and those who have married into Iranian families... Any footnote I checked came out true and accurate.

I have encountered quite a large number of history books about Iran and Middle East, only a few have gone so deep into the history and have maintained an unbiased course to the present day.
"A Concise History Of Iran" is a fairly bold step towards digging the truth about Persia and its current socio-economical state.

Absolutely worth-reading........... I am majoring in M/E History ;and I certainly recommend this book. I have read it twice and still refer to its objective content for my college papers.
The information is weel-written, straight forward, and selected without political or religious side-taking.I hope I will read more from this author.

I am impressed by the wholesome content of this timely book.We need to study the roots & causes of our troubled relationship with this or any other stratigic nation in the Middle-East.The author rightfully reflects on the lack of consideration for Human Rights in the political system in Persia.

This book does exactly what it says and condenses thousands of years of history in a book. It obviously took much effort to find the many different perspectives other books have on the history of the middle east and find a solid stream of history to share with the audience. Highly recommend this well-written and informative book!

I received this book in the mail two days ago.... I enjoyed reading it from cover to cover and recommend it very highly.